Analyzing the problem:
Before you start, you must understand the reporting problem that you are trying to solve and what data is available to solve it. If you cannot address the following questions, talk to your users about their reporting requirements:
Procedure:
- Do you and your users agree on the reporting requirements? Issues to resolve can include multilingualism, performance, security, and how to organize and combine query items and filters.
- Does the data source contain the data and metadata that you need? Without metadata such as primary keys, indexes, and foreign keys, your reports may take too long to run, or may produce incorrect results. If the data source does not contain the data and metadata that you need, will it be changed, or will you work around it? For more additional info Cognos Training
- Does the same data exist in more than one source? If so, choose the data source that most closely fits your reporting requirements. If a data warehouse is available, it is typically a better choice than an operational database. A data warehouse based on a star schema is ideal. If this does not exist, and you expect that your reporting application will be heavily used, consider arranging for one to be created.
- Which data source tables are the fact tables, which are the dimensions, and which are both fact table and dimension?
- What are the keys and attributes of each dimension?
- Which relationships are required?
- Are there multiple relationship paths between tables? If so, what does each path represent? You must define the preferred path for each.
Building IBM Cognos Analytics applications
You use the IBM Cognos Analytics components to build reporting and analysis applications. The lifetime of an IBM Cognos Analytics application can be months, or even years. During that time, data may change and new requirements appear.
As the underlying data changes, authors must modify existing content and develop new content. Administrators must also update models and data sources over time. Learn more skills from Cognos TM1 Training
Before you begin In a working application, the technical and security infrastructure and the portal are in place, as well as processes for change management, data control, and so on.
When you use IBM Cognos Analytics to build applications across all of your IBM Cognos Analytics components, you locate and prepare data sources and models, build and publish the content, and then deliver the information. The following graphic provides an overview of the workflow.
Procedure
- Locate and prepare data sources and models. IBM Cognos Analytics can report from a wide variety of data sources, both relational and dimensional. Database connections are created in the Web administration interface, and are used for modeling, for authoring, and for running the application. To use data for authoring and viewing, the studios need a subset of a model of the metadata (called a package). The metadata may need extensive modeling in Framework Manager.
- Build and publish the content. Reports, scorecards, analysis, workspaces and more are created in the studios of IBM Cognos Analytics. Which studio you use depends on the content, life span, and audience of the report, and whether the data is modeled dimensionally or relationally.
- For example, self-service reporting and analysis are done through IBM Cognos Query Studio, and IBM Cognos Analysis Studio, and scheduled reports are created in IBM Cognos Analytics - Reporting. Reporting reports and scorecards are usually prepared for a wider audience, published, and scheduled for bursting, distribution, and so on. You can also use Reporting to prepare templates for self-service reporting.
- Deliver and view the information. You deliver content from the IBM Cognos portal and view information that has been saved or delivered by other mechanisms. You can also run reports, analyses, scorecards, and more from within the studio in which they were created.
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